Coat form retainer



Feb. 14, 1967 J. A. SCHEUER COAT FORM RETAINER Filed Feb. 5, 1964 INVENTOR. JEROME A. SCHEUER ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,303,976 COAT FORM RETAINER Jerome A. Scheuer, 2255 Lindmont Circle NE., Atlanta, Ga. 30324 Filed Feb. 5, 1964, Ser. No. 342,737 2 Claims. (Cl. 223-7 1) This invention relates to garment form retainers and more particularly to a form retainer for preventing coats and the like from sagging and becoming disheveled when hanging on a coat hanger or similar support.

It is standard practice for dry cleaning and laundry establishments to hang coats and other garments on coat hangers and similar devices for delivery to customers. The coat hangers customarily used to support a coat or the like support only the shoulder portions of a garment and leave the rest of the garment free to sag, wrinkle or get otherwise disheveled. This will usually occur with coats because the two front panels of a coat tend to droop and pull the entire coat out of shape.

This problem cannot be solved by simply buttoning the front panels of a coat to each other. This is because a coaton a hanger is flat rather than filled out as when being worn. Thus, when the panels of a coat are buttoned together, the panels tend to fold because of the slack in the material across the front of the coat. These folds mar the appearance of the coat. Moreover, when the coat on a hanger is hung on a rack with other garments, the folds are pressed into the garment and become wrinkles which are displeasing to the customers of a dry cleaning or laundry establishment.

These problems with coats on coat hangers or similar supports can be solved only by overlapping the front panels of a coat so as to remove the slack in the material across the front of the coat and by holding the panels in this position with some type of form retainer. As a result, many efforts have been made to provide a suitable form retainer. However, none of these previous efforts have resulted in a form retainer which is entirely satisfactory.

Some of these previous form retainers have been unsatisfactory because they have had only one effective length and were suited to correctly holding coats of only one particular size. Other previous form retainers have been unsatisfactory because they have varied their effective lengths by using holes or slots through which a button on a coat can be inserted only with difficulty. This has made the use of these form retainers time consuming and expensive. Moreover, almost all previous form retainers have required many time consuming manipulations for their proper installation in a coat.

The form retainer disclosed herein avoids these problems encountered with previous form retainers. It is a simple one piece form retainer which is easy to install and which effectively maintains a coat in its proper shape. Moreover, it is well suited to coats of various sizes and is inexpensive to manufacture.

The form retainer disclosed herein comprises a rectangular body member which engages a button on one panel of a coat and a tab member extending from the body member and which is easily and quickly insertable into a buttonhole in the other panel of a coat. The body member of the form retainer has an elongated slot extending into it from that end most remote from the tab member and this slot permits the body member of the form retainer to be easily slid beneath a button on a coat with the thread holding the button to the coat in the slot.

A plurality of notches extend into the body member from the slot and when the body member is inserted beneath a butt-on on a coat, the thread holding the button to the coat can be easily inserted from the slot into one "ice of the plurality of notches. The notches serve to fixedly position the form retainer with respect to that panel of the coat to which the button is attached and the particular notch into which the thread is inserted determines the eifective length of the form retainer.

Thus, regardless of the size of a coat, the form retainer disclosed herein will quickly and eifectively join the two panels of the coat so that substantially all slack in the material across the front of the coat is removed. The shape of the tab permits its easy insertion into a buttonhole while at the same time causing the tab to resist removal from the buttonhole after insertion. However, the form retainer may be easily removed from the coat when ithas served its purpose.

These and other features and advantages of the invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings in which like characters of reference designate corresponding parts in all figures and in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a coat with the form retainer positioned within the coat and with a portion of the coat cut away to show the form retainer engaging a button on one panel of the coat.

FIG. 2 is an end elevational view showing the tab member end of the form retainer.

FIG. 3 is an end elevational view showing the body member end of the form retainer.

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of the form retainer.

These figures and the following detailed description disclose a specific embodiment of the invention but the invention is not limited to the details disclosed since it may be embodied in other equivalent forms.

The form retainer disclosed herein is best understood as comprising a body member 10 for engaging a button 11 on one panel 12 of a coat 13 and a tab member 14 for engaging a buttonhole 15 in the other panel 16 of the coat 13. The body member 10 is a flat elongated rectangular piece of fiberboard, plastic, metal or other similar inexpensive and relatively rigid material. The tab member 14 is continuous With the body member 10 at one end 17 of the body member 10 and a slot 18 extends into the body member 10 toward the tab member 14 from that end 19 of the body member 10 most remote from the tab member 14.

The slot 18 extends from the end 19 of the body member 10 for a greater portion of the length of the body member 10 and serves to divide the body member 10 into a spacer strip 20 and a guide strip 21. At the end 19 of the body member 10, the corners of the spacer strip 20 and the guide strip 21 are rounded.

A plurality of notches 22 extend from the slot 18 into the spacer strip 20. Each of the plurality of notches 22 is formed by a circular portion 23 joined by a V-shaped portion 24 to the slot 18. The V-shaped portion 24 of each notch 22 is displaced from the circular portion 23 of the notch 22 toward the end 17 of the body member 10. In addition, that side 25 nearest the end 17 of the support member 10 of the V-shaped portion 24 of each notch 22 is longer than the other side 26 of the V-shaped portion 24 of each notch 22. The result of this arrangement is that each notch 22 provides a hook 29 between the slot 18 and the circular portion 23 of the notch 22 and a side 25 which slopes from the slot 18 into the circular portion 23 above the hook 29.

The tab member 14 is formed by an arm 30 and a tab 31. The upper edge 32 of the arm 30 is continuous with the upper edge 33 of the body member 10 and the arm 30 curves downwardly from the end 17 of the body member 10 to the tab 31. The tab 31 of the tab member 14 is heart-shaped and symmetrical about a line extending from its point 34 substantially perpendicular to an extension of the upper edge 33 of the body member 10.

The point 34 of the tab 31 is that portion of the tab 31 most remote from the arm 30 and it will be understood that the construction of the tab member 14 places the tab 31 outwardly of the end 17 of the body member with the point 34 of the tab 31 extending downwardly away from the arm 30. It will also be understood that all portions of the body member 10 and the tab member 14 are in substantially the same flat plane of reference.

When the form retainer described herein is used with a coat 13, the point 34 of the tab 31 is inserted into a buttonhole 15 in a panel 16 of the coat 13 from the back of the panel 16. The heart-shape of the tab 31 permits the tab 31 to be easily and quickly passed completely through the buttonhole 15 and once the tab 31 is completely inserted through the buttonhole 15, the wide portion 37 of the tab 31 tends to prevent the tab 31 from being removed from the buttonhole 15.

Once the tab 31 has been inserted through the buttonhole 15 in the panel 16 of the coat 13, the panel 16 of the coat 13 is placed outwardly of and overlapping the panel 12 of the coat 13. This serves to place the body member 10 of the form retainer between the panels 12 and 16 of the coat 13 with the end 19 of the body member 10 extending toward a button 11 on the panel 12 of the coat 13. With the body member 10 in this position, the thread 38 holding the button 11 to the panel 12 of the coat 13 is inserted into the slot 18. This serves to place the spacer strip 20 of the body member 10 beneath the button 11 on one side of the thread 38 and the guide strip 21 beneath the button 11 on the opposite side of the thread 38 from the spacer strip 20.

With the thread 38 holding the button 11 to the panel 12 in the slot 18 of the body member 10, the overlap between the panels 12 and 16 of the coat 13 is adjusted until both of the panels 12 and 16 are substantially flat and wrinkle free. When this occurs, the thread 38 will be at or near one of the notches 22 extending into the spacer strip 20 of the body member 10 and slight motion of the body member 10 relative to the panel 12 of the coat 13 causes the thread 38 to strike either the side 25 or the side 26 of the notch 22 and slide along the side 25 or the side 26 into the circular portion 23 of the notch 22 above the hook 29.

It will be understood that this insertion of the thread 38 into a notch 22 is most easily accomplished by initially overlapping the panels 12 and 16 slightly in excess of that overlap required to remove all Wrinkles from the panels 12 and 16 and then releasing the panels 12 and 16 so as to allow the thread 38 to slide along the sloping side 25 of a notch 22 into the notch 22. It will also be understood that the form retainer may be positioned within the coat 13 by initially inserting the thread 38 into a selected notch 22 and then overlapping the panels 12 4 and 16 and inserting the tab 31 through the buttonhole 15.

It will now be seen that the guide strip 21 serves with the spacer strip 20 to hold the form retainer beneath a button 11 as the overlap of the panels 12 and 16 of a coat 13 is adjusted and serves alone to guide or maintain the thread 38 adjacent to the notches 22 in the spacer strip 20. The plurality of notches 22 in the spacer strip 20 permit a plurality of distances between a buttonhole 15 and a button 11 to be selected depending upon the size of the coat 13 and the width of the spacer strip 20 relative to the guide strip 21 insures that the spacer strip 20 has suificient strength to maintain the space or distance between a buttonhole 1-5 and button 11 while at the same time permitting the total width of the form retainer to be small enough for the form retainer to be easily handled.

After use, the form retainer is easily removed from the coat 13 simply by tearing the arm 30 so as to remove the tab 31 from the form retainer and by a motion of the body member 10 which moves the thread 38 along the side 25 into the slot 18 and then out of the slot 18. Thus, the form retainer disclosed is both easily positioned in and removed from a coat 13. In addition, it is inexpensive to manufacture using cutting or other known manufacturing techniques and known inexpensive materials such as fiberboard.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many variations may be made in the embodiments chosen for the purpose of illustrating the present invention without departing from the scope thereof as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A form retainer for a coat comprising an elongated body portion having a hooked tab member for insertion into a buttonhole extending outwardly from one end there of, said body portion defining an elongated rectilinear slot which is open at that end of said body opposite to said tab member and having a plurality of thread receiv ing notches communicating with said slot whereby said body portion may be slidingly and adjustably hooked onto the thread securing a button to said coat.

2. A form retainer for a coat according to claim 1 wherein the end of said hooked tab member is heartshaped.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,641,390 6/1953 Sherhondy 22371 2,642,210 6/1953 Lang 223-71 2,967,647 1/ 1961 Billingsley 223-71 3,040,940 6/ 1962 Richardson 22371 JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

G. V. LARKIN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A FORM RETAINER FOR A COAT COMPRISING AN ELONGATED BODY PORTION HAVING A HOOKED TAB MEMBER FOR INSERTION INTO A BUTTONHOLE EXTENDING OUTWARDLY FROM ONE END THEREOF, SAID BODY PORTION DEFINING AN ELONGATED RECTILINEAR SLOT WHICH IS OPEN AT THAT END OF SAID BODY OPPOSITE TO SAID TAB MEMBER AND HAVING A PLURALITY OF THREAD RECEIVING NOTCHES COMMUNICATING WITH SAID SLOT WHEREBY SAID BODY PORTION MAY BE SLIDINGLY AND ADJUSTABLY HOOKED ONTO THE THREAD SECURING A BUTTON TO SAID COAT. 